Don’t let content slow you down: Google FastFlip

A great experience with print is that the reader dictates how quickly they spend finding and reading content. Unlike with the printed page, digital advertisers have a lot of technologies available to them to deter the reader’s attention from the content and focus on their advertisement. Whether it is a non-obtrusive technique—like a simple banner ad or muted video—or a very obtrusive technique—like forcing the user to click a “close” or “ignore” button to remove an ad from overlaying on the content—these advertisers can hinder the user’s experience in searching and reading content.

To eliminate some of the headache for the user Google introduced FastFlip. This service, currently in Google Labs, offers a means to replicate the tactile experience of a printed source. According to their explanation,

Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers…. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like.

Gigaom asks whether or not Google is planning on becoming the media company which is a heavily debated topic. Regardless of one’s stance on the debate, Google FastFlip is very convenient method to choose which news sources you want to “thumb through” without having to be subjected to irrelevant information or clumsy advertising content.